Universal plug and play (UPnP) is a set of computer network protocols that define how networked devices discover each-other and communicate on a network. Because the UPnP architecture enables devices to automatically be configured for a given network, it is well-suited for use in consumer networks. For example, UPnP devices may be used to create a consumer network at a household.
An example UPnP consumer network may include a personal computer, a digital video recorder, and a television. In this example, when the consumer brings a laptop with wireless networking in range of the UPnP consumer network, the laptop may automatically join the UPnP consumer network, recognize devices on the network, and announce its presence to other devices on the network. The networked devices may then use the UPnP consumer network to transfer media content between one another. In addition, the devices may transmit control information (e.g., a command instructing a device to present media content), events associated with the devices (e.g., an event indicating that a device is presenting media content), and user interface components (e.g., a webpage that allows users to control devices).
Television ratings information is typically generated by collecting viewing records and/or other viewing information from a group of statistically selected households. Each of the statistically selected households typically has a data logging and processing unit commonly referred to as a “home unit.” The home unit is often in communication with a variety of attachments that provide inputs to the home unit or receive outputs from the home unit. The home unit usually processes the inputs (e.g., channel tuning information, viewer identities, etc.) from the attachments to produce viewing records. Viewing records may be generated on a periodic or aperiodic basis (e.g., at fixed time intervals or in response to events such as a change in the identit(ies) of the person(s) viewing the television, a change in the channel tuning information (i.e., a channel change), etc). Each viewing record typically contains channel information such as a station or channel number and a time (e.g., a date and time of day) at which the channel was viewed. Of course, viewing records may contain other information such as the identities of viewers present at the viewing time.
Often, the home unit collects a number of viewing records and transmits collected viewing records to a central data processing facility for further processing or analysis. The central data processing facility receives viewing records from home units located in some or all of the statistically selected households and analyzes the viewing records to ascertain the viewing behavior(s) of a particular household or a particular group of households selected from all participating households. Additionally, the central data processing facility may generate viewing behavior statistics and/or other parameters indicative of viewing behavior associated with some or all of the participating households and/or with demographic or other groups that are represented by the particular household.
To generate viewing behavior information from viewing records, the central data processing facility may compare reference data such as a list of programs (i.e., a schedule of television programming or television guide) to the viewing records. In this manner, the central data processing facility can infer which program was viewed by matching the time and channel information in a viewing record to the program associated with that same time and channel in the program schedule. Such a matching process can be carried out for each of the viewing records received by the central data processing facility, thereby enabling the central data processing facility to reconstruct what programs were watched by all participating households and the times at which the programs were watched.
Other manners of identifying programs are known. For example, the home unit or other metering device can collect codes broadcast with media content to identify the consumer(s) and/or the media content. Alternatively or additionally, the home unit or the metering device may collect samples of the consumed media content or proxies for those samples to be compared against a database of known samples/proxies to identify the media content.